Hello! I’ve owned Grim Dawn since early into beta but because I’m very indecisive, TQ style ARPGs give me hangups because of the looseness of the builds, so despite enjoying the game I’ve never made it further than level 35. Finally I’ve found a build that I think can get me to endgame where I can learn and adapt and make my own decisions, but I need help!
I’ve settled on a cold/frostburn melee Spellbinder that uses Bone Harvest for its meat. It’s by no means what I intend to play at end game, just what works for me thematically, so please don’t worry about my build not being great or final. It just seems cool and is so far pretty fun, so I’m going to run with it, and could use your help choosing where to put my points while I’m leveling!
This is a very rough build to give you an idea of where I’m going with things: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/nZoGvbGZ. The distribution of points is by no means concrete and will obviously change with respecs and your advice. I’m currently at level 30 on this character, not the level saved on the build, I just plopped those points in to give you a general idea of my direction. My questions:
Generally how would you distribute skill points while leveling this build? I have no way to know yet whether passives, stat points, defensive actives or my two bread and butter spells (Bone Harvest and Flash Freeze) are more important while leveling or what I should add or remove while keeping the general “cold bone harvest melee” build. Please help me form a “priority list” of things to level!
Devotion lol? I’m crazy overwhelmed by where to put my devotion points right now, so pretend my devotion is blank. For the purpose of leveling and getting up through the game’s difficulties, what devotions would you grab along the way to support this weird hybrid cold/frostburn melee?
I don’t need or want this to be the best thing ever, and I promise to temper your recommendations with my own interests, but I am destructively indecisive and some general guidance would be very appreciated! Thanks for any help.
I;d max Lethal Assault and Bone harvest with tranmuter+ soul harvest(flat cold damage is amazing.
Then you can either go for Cold Shadow strike or Cold Phantasmal blades, whatever you like more.
For devotios just get toad or quill+ hawk and 3 points in rhowans crown for the porc. The resistance reduction on it is great. After venteran diffivulty you can also invest in night’s chill for more reduce resist
Yeah probably a misunderstanding in his part but Cold Spellbinder isn’t actually a thing right now (though aether spellbinder is probably the strongest build in the game) that’s why he’s talking Reaper.
Not a thing as in not an endgame build people are using? That’s okay by me, I don’t need it to be. It seems fun so far and that’s enough for me. I don’t need to be great, I just need a little focus.
Neither, preferably. Devastation requires an offhand and that won’t happen with my twohander (Harvester of Death), and Drain Essence use seems mutually exclusive with all the melee abilities I’m eyeing.
Thank you for the advice. I’m going to take my chances anyway because playing a bad build I enjoy is far more likely to keep my interest to endgame than a good build I don’t enjoy. If you can recommend a general focus while leveling within my idea, I’m all ears. I’d even say I’m flexible to change if the general theme is kept.
It doesn’t have to be great, so I’d be satisfied mitigating discomfort with advice despite the core idea being difficult.
One of the “neither” builds seems closest to my interest, so thanks for the links! Unfortunately, it doesn’t alleviate the problem of my not knowing what to put points into first. Any advice on a general order of what I would level first?
I don’t see why coldbinder wont work. Any binder will work due to broken interaction of Aeon+Mirror+TD.
For leveling start as Necro, rush Soul harvest, max it, then max bone Harvest. Then go for Arcanist - max Inner focus, put one point in Mirror, rush Star Pact, max it.
In endgame there is 2 options:
1)2 Ulzaad channeler+Beronath shard+Necro WPS+2Seal of Void
2)Dreadweaver+Caster offhand. Pure CDR binder.
Dumb thought/suggestion of mine: what about Frostburn Spellbinder? 2 Mythical Dreadweavers for 100% Frostburn Dread alongside Frozen Core.
Big downside to the combo still is Binder lacks Cold RR and Frostburn is done better by other combinations, especially ones that include Nightblade/Inquisitor.
Did not know :rolleyes: I can’t get to a PC currently so haven’t been able to check grim tools links. Was just throwing out a crazy idea that I didn’t see anyone else mention, sorry.
If you want some input then your crazy idea does work but it’s not that pretty to look at. But not with a Binder rather with a Reaper.
Even with the Frostburn mod for Bone Harvest, I wasn’t too impressed with output and playstyle.